When Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou heard the youth introduce himself, both froze on the spot. Involuntarily taking two steps back, a dreadful premonition of impending doom washed over them.
Daoist Xiantian?
The sect's founding patriarch?!
Lu Yang was the first to regain his composure. He cracked the whip in his hand with sharp snaps, sparks bursting from the tip and making the youth tremble in fear.
With a sinister sneer, Lu Yang said, "What brazen nerve! To think you would dare impersonate the senior I revere most! Let me ask you this: what is Daoist Xiantian's real name?"
"Qi Tongtian."
"How did the Dao Seeking Sect get its name?"
"I spent one hundred thousand spirit stones to hire people from the Heavenly Strategy Sect to divine where the feng shui would be best to build a sect. After the divination, I set out according to the results, only to get lost halfway. I had no choice but to ask an old farmer by the roadside for directions. To commemorate that experience and express my gratitude to the old farmer, I named the sect the Dao Seeking Sect."
"How many wives did Daoist Xiantian have?"
"When did I ever take a wife?!"
"Why didn't you get married?"
"I was poor! I had no spirit stones! Every single stone went into building the sect!"
Tied by his feet and suspended from the tree, the youth spun around with every gentle breeze.
Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou exchanged a glance. *Uh-oh. He answered every question correctly. It looks like he really is Daoist Xiantian.*
Lu Yang gave a dry cough, plastered a beaming smile across his face, and hurriedly lowered the inverted Daoist Xiantian. "Daoist Xiantian is the person I revere most in this world. Whenever I run into difficulties in my cultivation, I often reflect on how your venerable self founded the Dao Seeking Sect under such arduous circumstances, which fills me with immense inspiration! Just now, I thought you were an impostor—please forgive us, Patriarch."
Daoist Xiantian was now nothing more than an ordinary mortal. Having hung upside down for so long, dizziness overwhelmed him the moment his feet touched the ground, leaving him momentarily unable to register Lu Yang's words.
Meng Jingzhou tactfully procured a chair from who knew where and invited the Patriarch to sit.
Daoist Xiantian murmured his thanks, sat in the chair, and rested for a moment. Suddenly, it dawned on him that they had called him "Patriarch."
"Wait a minute... you two are from the Dao Seeking Sect?"
The pair bowed and scraped with utmost deference. "My name is Lu Yang; just call me Little Lu."
"I'm Meng Jingzhou; just call me Little Meng."
Daoist Xiantian gave them an odd look, recalling the stories he had overheard by the roadside.
"You're that Lu Yang who challenged across cultivation realms while still in the Foundation Establishment stage and defeated opponents at the Golden Core, Nascent Soul, and Soul Formation stages?"
"And you're the Meng Jingzhou whose Dao heart is rock-solid, who remains morally steadfast in the lap of temptation, devoted entirely to the Dao?"
"Patriarch, you must be exhausted from hanging in that tree for so long. Let me massage your shoulders."
"I'll knead your legs for you."
As the two gave the Patriarch a massage, they chatted casually. "Patriarch, since you founded the Dao Seeking Sect, why didn't you enter your deep slumber within the sect?"
The sect housed Daoist Xiantian's tomb; no one had known that his death was faked and that his true body was elsewhere all along.
Daoist Xiantian wanted to cry, but had no tears. "I never imagined the sect I threw together back then could actually survive to this day!"
Chapter 724